What a day. Scratch that - what a week!

Everyone probably knows about the horrible week we had, but I'll write about it just in case. Sunday night after church Jon put Lorelai in her bed to go to sleep. She had been completely fine all day and all night so we had no reason to suspect something was wrong. About five minutes after Jon put her down I heard him running in there (I was in Asher's room). Immediately I knew something was wrong so I went in there. She had thrown up everywhere in her crib. It was a mess, and needless to say she needed a good bath. She got sick a couple of more times throughout the night, and the next day she only threw up once or so. She started some diarrhea that day as well, but nothing too bad so imagine our surprise when Tuesday came and she was still throwing up and had even worse diarrhea. I honestly had expected her to be done with both by Tuesday because it seemed like she was on the mend by Monday evening. So Jon took her to the pediatrician who gave her some medications and did a blood test to check her Co2 levels mainly. The Co2 came back as 12 which is very low. He called me to say she absolutely had to be admitted, no questions asked. He said that he'd never seen a child with a Co2 of lower than 15 be able to come out of it on his/her own without at least an IV. So we left for the hospital, got admitted, got her IV, etc. The doctor also said that her glucose was low (50s), but the main concern was the Co2 level. They checked her blood again when we got there, and the results showed her Co2 at 14 (doctor said it can fluctuate like that) and glucose now at 43. By bedtime that night her glucose rose to 89. After hearing that I was very confident in her being able to go home the next day. I felt like the IV was doing as it was supposed to, and things were good.

The next morning the nurse came in to get her blood for a re-check. While her Co2 level was now at 15 (still not great, but pretty good considering) her glucose had dropped to 43 again and her sodium was still too low. She had already been on a bag of fluids to help with her sodium, but the doctor said she definitely couldn't go home today (Wednesday) and we'd reevaluate the following morning. We pushed food as much as we could the whole day because we were told that her levels were too low overall which was what was keeping her glucose level from stabilizing. In order to get it up and keep it up we really needed food to be getting in her system which she hadn't really had much of since Sunday. We pushed food, juice, anything we could get her to take the whole day until bedtime while she got more IV fluids for each level. By the next morning her Co2 was at 19, glucose at over 100, and sodium was 138 (135 was what it had to be in order to leave)! We were ecstatic! The doctor said we could leave that afternoon if Lorelai could drink plenty of fluids and show that she could do well off the IV which praise the Lord she did! The day before it was a struggle sometimes to get her to do that, but she finally seemed to show interest in food and drink again. She still had bad diarrhea, but the vomiting had stopped so we just had to stay away from dairy products since it can upset their tummies. We were able to leave that afternoon, and after two nights in the hospital it's an understatement when I say that Jon and Lorelai were thrilled. :) Here the kids are the day Lorelai got home from the hospital.





Wednesday morning while Lorelai was in the hospital Asher woke me up crying. I just had a feeling so I ran in with a bowl (thank goodness!) and was able to catch him throwing up in it. I was so frustrated because the last thing we needed was another sick child while one is in the hospital with the same thing. Somehow, though, he was completely fine after that. He went back to sleep until 9-ish that morning, ate, drank, played. It was strange. However, on Friday night (after my sister got in to town for the weekend) Asher threw up about 30 minutes after going to bed. It was bad. And no one caught it in a bowl this time. Cleaning up and getting him settled again took about 2 hours which put him in bed about 11:45 PM. Thankfully we still had the Zofran (anti-nausea meds) from Lorelai being sick and had been given permission to give it to him. I'm a big fan of Zofran these days! It worked like charm! While he still wasn't his old self, he at least didn't throw up again. He started with the diarrhea on Saturday, though, and today is his first day with neither vomiting or diarrhea. I'm praying we're done with the sickness now! Asher is definitely back to his old self, but his appetite isn't quite back completely. He's getting there, and today was much better than yesterday in that area. I'm so glad to have two happy kids again! These are the sweeties tonight before bed.




So that brings us to today - because nothing in our lives lately seems to be without doctors and hospitals. I had a regularly scheduled appointment this morning with my perinatologist, and I really thought once it was over we'd be done with the doctors/hospitals until my next appointment next week. Heidi kept the kids so Jon could go with me (thank you again, Heidi!!). We got there and started the ultrasound just to check things out before checking my cervical length. We got some great shots of Micah! He's even more adorable this week! :) The doctor again confirmed that he has a big noggin', but nothing more - no reason to suspect problems because his head is beautifully shaped and anatomically perfect. I mentioned the possibility of dwarfism because I know bigger heads can be an indicator for that, but he dismissed that saying that his femur bone is measuring right where it should be almost to the day, and if there was a reason to suspect dwarfism he would be at least 2 weeks behind on his femur. Hoover babies are just big-headed. :)

So then we did the cervical length check. It has again shortened. I didn't really think it was that big of a deal. Yes, it's changed, but not a drastic amount in my opinion. His concern was that I'm now consistently below 2.5 cm even with no pressure, lying down, and resting. The problem with that is the cervical length is below 2.5 cm especially at an early gestational age the chances of preterm labor are increased. Also, when there is such a short cervix left the cervix shortens at a faster rate due to it being weaker especially under pressure. Because of this he decided it was time to start the steroid injections for Micah's lungs and development. He also was concerned about some leaking and it possibly being amniotic fluid. I was quite certain that it wasn't amniotic fluid, but he wanted to make sure so he sent the report over to my OB. She told me that she'd rather me go be admitted into labor and delivery at the hospital so we could the results more quickly and to get my steroids there. She doesn't have the steroids to give so I'd have to get a prescription filled for them and then bring them in to be given to me so felt this was easier, faster, and better for the situation. Needless to say I was less than thrilled about going to the hospital after spending so much time there last week, but I knew it had to be done. The test came back negative so it's not amniotic fluid I'm leaking which is a great thing obviously. I also got my steroid injection and was then told to spend the night in L&D so I could get my next shot the following day, but if I wanted to I could go home and come back for it tomorrow. Naturally I chose to go home. Who would actually choose to stay there if they have the opportunity to go home anyway? Unfortunately, though, I will have to be admitted into another room tomorrow to get the shot. I told them they could do it in the hallway, and I wouldn't mind, but they didn't go for that. Then I had to wait for almost an hour for transport to come and get me because they said I couldn't leave without the wheelchair due to what is going on with me. It was a little crazy, but I waited. Poor Jon was doing laps around the hospital with the kids in the car trying to keep them entertained while he waited for me to get down there. Finally I called the nurse to make sure I hadn't been forgotten, and the sweet nurse who gave me my shot decided she'd take me herself so I finally got out of there. Now I have to go back at about 4 PM tomorrow for round 2, but hopefully that is ALL we'll be doing there. Being at home I'm even more thankful for my comfortable bed and couch after spending way too much time in a horrible hospital bed and room. But look at how sweet this face and profile are - definitely worth it all.